The business register in Armenia is the իրավաբանական անձանց պետական միասնական գրանցամատյան (State Unified Register of Legal Persons), an electronic register kept by the Հայաստանի Հանրապետության արդարադատության նախարարության իրավաբանական անձանց պետական ռեգիստրի գործակալություն (Agency for the State Register of Legal Persons of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia) and published online at e-register.am. It holds companies, individual entrepreneurs, branches and representative offices of Armenian and foreign legal persons, non-commercial organisations and state bodies. Core registration data, including the identity of beneficial owners, are searchable free of charge.

The company registry in Armenia

The register is governed by the «Իրավաբանական անձանց պետական գրանցման, ... պետական հաշվառման մասին» ՀՀ օրենք (Law of the Republic of Armenia on State Registration of Legal Persons and State Record-Registration), in its current consolidated version, and by the Հայաստանի Հանրապետության քաղաքացիական օրենսգիրք (Civil Code of the Republic of Armenia). The Agency is a structural subdivision of the Ministry of Justice, whose head is appointed by the Minister of Justice and which performs registration, record-registration and the issue of register documents.

Registration in Armenia is fully electronic. Excerpts, refusal decisions and other Agency documents are issued as electronic documents sent to the applicant and made retrievable online with an access code; signatures and seals may be replaced by a system-generated number or QR code that can be verified on the Ministry’s official document-authenticity service. Certified paper printouts are available on request.

Legal persons and individual entrepreneurs

Armenia keeps one unified register containing two distinct sub-registers. Legal persons undergo պետական գրանցում (state registration) and are entered in the register of state registration of legal persons. Individual entrepreneurs — անհատ ձեռնարկատեր, ԱՁ (individual entrepreneur) — undergo պետական հաշվառում (state record-registration) and are entered in a separate register of record-registered individual entrepreneurs, with its own statutory list of recorded data. Both sit inside the same State Unified Register and are searched through the same portal. Record-registration of an individual entrepreneur takes effect immediately on submission, with automatic assignment of the record-registration number, the taxpayer identification number and the social contribution account number.

Entities registered elsewhere

An important exception concerns the financial sector. Banks, credit organisations, investment companies, crypto-asset service providers, corporate investment funds and fund managers, regulated market operators, securitisation funds, the Central Depository, insurance and reinsurance companies, pension fund managers and their branches and representative offices are registered by the Հայաստանի Հանրապետության կենտրոնական բանկ (Central Bank of the Republic of Armenia) rather than by the Agency; their data are nevertheless mirrored into the State Unified Register in a reduced form. Communities and inter-community unions are also outside the Agency’s remit.

Legal forms that can be registered in Armenia

The Civil Code divides legal persons into commercial and non-commercial. Commercial legal persons may be created only in the form of economic partnerships and companies, while cooperatives may be either. The registrable forms are:

  • Լիակատար ընկերակցություն (General partnership) — partners bear joint and several subsidiary liability with all their personal property; only individual entrepreneurs and commercial organisations may be partners. Rare in practice.
  • Վստահության վրա հիմնված ընկերակցություն, կոմանդիտային ընկերակցություն (Limited partnership) — general partners are unlimitedly liable, while contributors risk only their contribution and take no part in management.
  • Սահմանափակ պատասխանատվությամբ ընկերություն, ՍՊԸ (Limited liability company, LLC) — participants bear no liability for the company’s obligations and risk only their contributions; charter capital is divided into participatory shares. It may be formed by a single person and is by far the dominant form for small and medium businesses and foreign-owned companies.
  • Լրացուցիչ պատասխանատվությամբ ընկերություն (Additional liability company) — participants bear subsidiary liability with their own property in a multiple of their contributions fixed in the charter; otherwise LLC rules apply. Very rare.
  • Բաց բաժնետիրական ընկերություն, ԲԲԸ (Open joint-stock company) — shareholders are liable only up to the value of their shares; shares are freely transferable and may be offered publicly. Open joint-stock companies must publish their annual report and balance sheet.
  • Փակ բաժնետիրական ընկերություն, ՓԲԸ (Closed joint-stock company) — shares are distributed only among founders or a predetermined circle, with pre-emption rights and no public subscription; a common alternative to the LLC for larger closely held businesses and joint ventures.
  • Կոոպերատիվ (Cooperative, commercial or consumer) — a membership association pooling share contributions, with members’ liability for losses fixed by the charter; used in agriculture, credit and consumer cooperation.
  • Անհատ ձեռնարկատեր, ԱՁ (Individual entrepreneur) — not a legal person; acts on his own behalf and at his own risk with full unlimited personal liability. Legal capacity arises from record-registration, which is granted for an unlimited term.
  • Մասնաճյուղ (Branch) and ներկայացուցչություն (Representative office) of Armenian or foreign legal persons, and հիմնարկ (institution) — not legal persons; they are record-registered, act under a charter approved by the parent and a power of attorney, and the parent bears full liability. A foreign parent must additionally file its founding charter and an extract from the commercial register of its country of registration, apostilled or consularised and translated into Armenian.
  • Հասարակական միավորում / հասարակական կազմակերպություն (Public association or non-governmental organisation) — a non-commercial membership organisation whose members hold no property rights in it.
  • Հիմնադրամ (Foundation) — a non-membership organisation created on voluntary property contributions for social, charitable, cultural, educational or other public-benefit purposes.
  • Իրավաբանական անձանց միություն (Union of legal persons) — members bear subsidiary liability in proportion to their contributions, including for a period after withdrawal.
  • Կուսակցություն (Political party), համատիրություն (condominium), պետական կամ համայնքային ոչ առևտրային կազմակերպություն (state or community non-commercial organisation), and professional self-governing bodies such as the նոտարական պալատ (Notarial Chamber) and փաստաբանների պալատ (Chamber of Advocates) — each has its own statutory excerpt form in the register.

Armenia also allows ռեդոմիցիլացում (re-domiciliation) of foreign legal persons into the Armenian register, with the foreign registration number, date and exit date from the foreign register recorded in the Armenian excerpt.

Information available from the Armenian business register

The statutory rule is that information held in the State Unified Register is public, except for the passport data of natural persons, their public services (social card) number, their addresses of residence and record-registration, and their means of contact. The Civil Code likewise describes the register as open for general familiarisation.

A defined set of data is available free of charge and without state duty, online, for legal persons, individual entrepreneurs and state bodies: the name and organisational-legal form; the date and number of state registration or record-registration; the taxpayer identification number; the industrial classification code; the registered office or address of entrepreneurial activity; whether the entity is in liquidation or has been removed from record-registration; and, notably, the beneficial owner’s first name, last name, citizenship, the date on which the person became a beneficial owner and the grounds for that status. The free search is unusually broad: any person may search by company name, by first and last name, by social card number, by taxpayer identification number and by the registration number of a founder or participant, which makes reverse searches by person possible.

Complete register information and copies of company charters are available to anyone on payment of the state duty. The complete data set covers founders and participants and the dates on which they joined or left, the amount of authorised capital and each participant’s share, the head of the executive body and other persons entitled to act without a power of attorney, liquidation status, legal succession, re-domiciliation data and beneficial owners. In addition, the documents held at the Agency, including those that served as the basis for each registration, are open for inspection and copying, with electronic copies supplied within a short statutory period.

What is restricted

The closed categories are the personal identifiers listed above — passport data, public services number, residence addresses and contact details — which apply equally to founders, participants, directors and beneficial owners. For beneficial owners this means that only five fields are public, while date of birth, identity-document data, the public services number, residential address and contacts are withheld. Data on the head of the executive body of Central-Bank-registered entities are, beyond the name, released only to state bodies and to holders of contractual automatic access. There is also a structural gap rather than a confidentiality rule: for joint-stock companies the register does not record shareholders, their participation dates or their shares, because the shareholder register is maintained by the Central Depository.

Financial statements are not held in the company register at all. Their publicity is governed by the «Հաշվապահական հաշվառման մասին» ՀՀ օրենք (Law of the Republic of Armenia on Accounting), under which all organisations except small and micro-organisations must publish annual financial statements by the middle of the following year, together with the audit opinion where an audit is required, either on their own website, on the official public notification website azdarar.am or on a registered media website, keeping them available for at least five years.

Documents that can be obtained from the register

  • Քաղվածք (Excerpt from the State Unified Register, complete information) — the central registry document. It contains the name, registration number and date, entity code, taxpayer identification number, social contribution account number, liquidation status, registered office, term of activity, the head of the executive body or other person entitled to represent the company, the legal predecessor, the participants with their shares and the dates of their changes, and a general description of all changes made since registration. It functions as company extract, certificate of incumbency and evidence of good standing in one document, and is used for banking, tenders, notarial deeds and litigation.
  • Անհատ ձեռնարկատիրոջ հաշվառման քաղվածք (Excerpt confirming record-registration of an individual entrepreneur) — first and last name, record-registration number, taxpayer identification number, date and place of record-registration.
  • Նոր ստեղծվող իրավաբանական անձի պետական գրանցման քաղվածք (Excerpt issued on state registration of a newly created legal person) — Armenia issues no separate paper certificate of incorporation; this excerpt is the document evidencing registration, and the same applies to registration of changes, reorganisation and record-registration of subdivisions.
  • Կանոնադրության պատճեն (Copy of the charter) — the company’s constitutional document, supplied together with complete register information. Charters carry a certified note sheet of the State Register recording the registration data. Used for due diligence, verification of corporate authority, mergers and acquisitions and litigation.
  • Տեղեկանք (Statement of information from the register) — a targeted confirmation of specific registered facts where a full excerpt is not the required format.
  • Մասնակի տեղեկատվություն (Partial information) — the free public data set described above, supplied in full whenever partial information is requested.
  • Գործակալությունում պահվող փաստաթղթերի պատճեններ (Copies of documents held by the Agency) — the underlying registration file, including founders’ decisions, minutes, charters, deeds of transfer and court judgments, available for familiarisation and photocopying. Used for deep due diligence and evidence in disputes.
  • Ապոստիլով վավերացված փաստաթղթեր (Apostilled register documents) — excerpts containing complete information on legal persons, their subdivisions, institutions and individual entrepreneurs, excerpts or statements issued as a result of registration and record-registration including changes, and excerpts on secured rights over movable property. Armenia operates an electronic apostille platform for electronically sealed documents. Used for opening bank accounts abroad, incorporating foreign subsidiaries, tenders and foreign court filings.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the business register in Armenia called?

It is the իրավաբանական անձանց պետական միասնական գրանցամատյան (State Unified Register of Legal Persons), kept by the Agency for the State Register of Legal Persons of the Ministry of Justice and available at e-register.am.

Are individual entrepreneurs in the same register as companies?

They are in the same unified register but in a separate sub-register. Legal persons are subject to state registration, while individual entrepreneurs are subject to state record-registration, each with its own statutory list of recorded data.

Is the Armenian company register free to search?

Yes for the core data set, which includes the name, registration number and date, taxpayer identification number, registered office, liquidation status and the identity of beneficial owners. Complete information and charter copies require payment of the state duty.

Can I see the shareholders of an Armenian company?

For limited liability companies, participants and their shares appear in the complete register information. For joint-stock companies they do not: the shareholder register is kept by the Central Depository rather than by the State Register.

Does the Armenian register issue a certificate of incorporation?

No separate certificate is issued. The excerpt produced on state registration is the document that evidences registration, and the complete-information excerpt serves the function of a certificate of good standing.

Where are Armenian companies’ financial statements published?

Not in the company register. Under the Law on Accounting, organisations other than small and micro-organisations publish annual financial statements on their own website, on the official public notification website azdarar.am or on a registered media website.

Sources

Keywords

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